Willy Parkers closed, on the block

Richard Tedesco

After nearly three years in business, Willy Parkers American Bar and Grill on Hillside Avenue has closed its doors 

Louis DiMaria, who owned the restaurant with his brother Reno, said the company sold the restaurant’s equipment and transferred the 20-year lease to an experienced restaurateur.

DiMaria said the final agreement on the sale is still pending, and declined to identify the new owner until the deal was completed. The restaurant’s last day of operation was Super Bowl Sunday.

“We were doing alright, but we weren’t where we hoped to be,” DiMaria said.

DiMaria, who along with his brother graduated Herricks High School, said financial losses the business at 71 Hillside Ave. sustained in the wake of Hurricane Sandy was a major factor in the decision.

“The hurricane hurt us with the capital,” DiMaria said. “Without the hurricane, I probably wouldn’t have taken his offer.”

DiMaria said the restaurant sustained a loss of $30,000 alone on the specialty beers it stocks. He said total losses resulting from spoiled food and equipment damaged by the power outage after the hurricane ran into six figures. Willy Parkers, he said, lost electric power from the time the hurricane hit until just before the nor’easter snowstorm struck the following week, when it lost power again.

DiMaria said the business had been in a “building phase,” but had not progressed as quickly as he and his brother thought it could have done.

DiMaria said he thinks the business was also hurt by a common perception among local residents that the prior owner, who operated under the same name, was still involved with the restaurant. 

The former owner, he said, had left some bad feelings among Williston Park residents before closing the restaurant, DiMaria said. 

“A lot of people didn’t believe the old owner wasn’t involved,” DiMaria said. 

DiMaria said he and his brother revived the name because they thought Williston Park residents would like the name. “Willy Parker” is short hand for a Williston Park resident.  

But, he said, that turned out to be a mistake and he and his brother planned  to rename and remodel the restaurant before the offer to buy the business surfaced. 

Plans called for recasting the restaurant as a sports bar with the name Willy’s Burgers and Brew. The bar, which dominated one side of the restaurant with multiple TV screens, would have been expanded into what was the dining room of the restaurant.

The brothers settled on Super Bowl Sunday as their restaurant’s last day of business because of its popularity as football viewing venue on Sundays.

“We thought it was fitting,” DiMaria said.

The DiMarias also had been frustrated last May by an unsuccessful application to the village board to create an outdoor dining area in the rear of the Hillside Avenue eatery. 

Neighbors of the restaurant had raised objections to noise from the outdoor area they said would disturb them during its projected evening hours of operation. At the time, the DiMarias said the outdoor dining space would provide a needed boost to their business.

The DiMaria brothers currently one pizzeria in Roslyn on Northern Boulevard and DiMaria said they are currently working on plans for “concept” pizzerias in Manhattan. 

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